Hi Nelson,
The dog is 4. I am using a target and with the dog at heel, I am giving the command (verbal and hand signal) to 'go out'. I've showed him where 'go out' is. He understand that perfectly (although I'm not using any type of corner barrier, as in ring gates, so that may be a problem?) He will run to the target and get the treat, I then praised and treated again until he fully understood. The problem arose when I tried to incorporate the 'sit'. Actually, tonight he did very well...go figure But, occassionally he will 'go out' and turn, but take a few too many steps before he sits. Maybe it's my timing with giving the command to 'sit'.

I actually did a google search and found some good info but any suggestions are appreciated.

Lisa

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on" Franklin D. Roosevelt

With Rory I hung a bell right by the sliding glass door that she departed from to go potty and I would grab her paw and ring the bell before we went outside. At first she wanted nothing to do with it but it only took a week or so before I was laying in bed and heard ding ding ding! I was so excited and now I take the bell if we go out of town or if she stays at my moms. The only downside to this is that some dogs will ring the bell for all reason, if the wind blows, a bird chirps, you can become a doorman in your own home, haha! Overall I've been very happy with it!

It usually not very good to do a problem solving article without actually seeing the dog and the problem. That being said, I give you a simple solution.

Have a "box" with all 4 sides made of 2x4 wood but with no "floor". As you see the all sides are very low and the dog can step into it with ease. Teach him to get into the box, and turn and Sit to get his reward. I like to use a small tidbit inside the box and once into position a bigger tidbit or other motivating (for the dog) object. The most important thing to do is to make sure you have that box at the end/edge of the training field or site, but not where the dog is showing his problems.

Then gradually extend the distance of the send until you have the distance you want. Eventually use the box in the original training field until the dog shows proficiency. Then eliminate the back 2x4 side, then the sides. From there you can start to use something smaller for the front barrier until eventually you can just use a painted line. And then not even that!

Lisa, FWIW, I train this initially by sending the dog to the target, then running after them and giving the "sit" command while right behind the dog. (it's a nice workout for me. ) It has to be repeated a lot. A whole lot. Over and over. I do it in my living room a lot, so I don't have to run as far.

What I found with Elmo was that eventually, when I'd done this enough, he started getting the idea to turn & sit, and I could run a little slower, so I was a step or 2 behind when I gave the sit command. Gradually, I was able to increase it. Once he was clear on the idea, I was able to increase faster. It took a long time to get to the initial phase of my hanging back a bit

The biggest bog-down I ran into was that I was letting him get his treat off the target, then asking for the sit, and marking and rewarding that. I had to start giving him his marker word when he reached the target, before he got his treat, and then again when he did the turn and sit. He then understood that he was supposed to do both things; go to the target, then turn & sit. He has a pretty nice go-out, though I'm a slacker about practicing so it's not as reliable as it could be. (it's a hard command to keep up on)

With Tully, I'm being quite a slacker, so I haven't gotten to the point where I can start hanging back yet.